Over 20 killed in Turkish air raid at Iraq border

MOSCOW (RIA Novosti)- More than 20 alleged diesel smugglers have been killed in an overnight air raid by Turkish Air Forces on a predominantly Kurdish-populated area at the Turkish border with Iraq, local media reported on Thursday.

The air raid near the village of Uludere in the southeastern Sirnak province began at 11 pm Turkish time (21:00 GMT) on Wednesday, Hurriyet Daily News said.

“Unmanned drones and thermal cameras detected a big group [of individuals] on the Iraqi side of the border, and jets took off,” the newspaper quoted a report by the Doğan News Agency as saying.

The Governor of Sirnak confirmed more than 20 people had been killed in the operation, the report said, adding that the victims were believed to be diesel smuggling peasants.

Meanwhile, Uludere village authorities were quoted by media reports as saying between 30 and 35 people had been killed.

“We have 30 corpses, all of them are burned,” Reuters quoted Fehmi Yaman, the mayor of Uludere, as saying. “The state knew that these people were smuggling in the region.”

The Turkish military carry out frequent raids against militants of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) movement in Turkey’s Kurdish-populated southeast, as well as across the border with Iraq.